SALT LAKE CITY — All across the country, people are stranded after flight cancellations — especially those flying with Southwest Airlines. Here in Salt Lake City, families are stuck trying to get back home, while others are trying to come up with creative ways to get back to Utah while stranded elsewhere.
According to FlightAware on Tuesday, about 60 flights into and out of Salt Lake City International Airport have been canceled, and 52 of these were on Southwest Airlines. These cancellations are costing some families thousands of dollars.
People like Brian Barrow are just trying to get home.
“Sunday morning, 2 a.m., I wake up to a notification via email that Southwest sent an update about our flight, and when I open the email, it’s a cancellation," he said.
Barrow and his family live in Tooele County. They were in New York City, trying to come back home Christmas morning, but Southwest canceled their return flight from LaGuardia to Denver. Since they still had the flight from Denver to Salt Lake, Barrow rebooked tickets for them on United Airlines to get to Denver to make the connection. But while they were on their way to the airport, Southwest canceled their other flight too.
“I'm checking every airline as the Southwest customer service representative at the desk is trying to figure out what they can do, which is ultimately nothing,” explained Barrow, calling the situation “chaos.”
“There are people in the spaces next to us — they're crying because they just do not know what to do," he said.
Barrow said after hours on the phone and trying different options, they were able to rebook with American Airlines to come home Wednesday — four days after they were supposed to. But, it came at a price.
“The flight that we ultimately picked, it's just over $500 a person for the four of us. So just over $2,000 to go from New York, Dallas, Salt Lake City," Barrow said. "The hotel stay for the additional three nights, we're looking at about $1,600.”
With the additional costs of food and getting around the city, the cancellation cost this family thousands of dollars — and this is without knowing if Southwest with reimburse them for any of it or for the flight they booked initially.
Southwest said they won’t be able to get on a plane till at least Saturday. But, staying at the same hotel for four more nights would cost the family over $3,000 and the uncertainty would continue, so that’s why they decided to book a return ticket earlier with American.
“We’re missing family events, we have a dog at home that’s being kept and watched over, so having to tell them, ‘Sorry, can you hold on to her for a little bit longer?’" Barrow said, "Yeah, the stress was there, I’m not going to lie. I felt it; my wife was really feeling it."
Jonathan Rendon and his family are in a similar situation — they were visiting Salt Lake and are trying to get back home to Texas. But their first flight Wednesday morning from Salt Lake to Vegas was canceled.
“We have a connecting flight, so hopefully we’re going to have to drive to Vegas now, try to get our rental all swapped out and stuff, so it’s going to be interesting,” explained Rendon.
“From what I know of, they have... no cars here right now available, so it’s going to be tough," he added. "So I’m on the phone right now with my current rental company to see if I can change my drop-off location. If not, we've got to see what they have here.”
So far, he still has the second flight from Vegas to home but is worried Southwest could cancel that too.
“At the counter, they told us, 'Hey, there’s a possibility it might not go out. As of right now, you should be good. We still have a 50-50 chance.' They basically compared it to playing a slot machine, so you don’t really win in those,” said Rendon.
